


Puppy Love

by MaroonCamaro



Series: Domestic Bliss [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, No Smut, Puppies, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 04:40:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4377551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaroonCamaro/pseuds/MaroonCamaro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rick wants a puppy, but Daryl doesn't want the expense or the headache. But when they find a stray in the park, it's Daryl that rescues him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Puppy Love

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a fluffy little plot bunny that wouldn't go away. I don't know where the money came from and the stork brought Carl if you were wondering how he got there.
> 
> This is un-beta'd so please don't judge to harshly. It's mostly just written for my Beta.
> 
> Enjoy.

“We're not getting a puppy, Rick.”

Rick paused in his perusal of Pets.com to give Daryl a mock pout, “But I want a puppy.”

“I know you want a puppy, but they cost money and they make a mess.”

Rick looked around their spacious great room with it's leather sofa set, thick woolly carpet covering Brazilian hardwood, and the expensive electronics, complete with four different gaming systems.

“Daryl, we have the money for a puppy, hell we got enough money for a herd of puppies.” Rick countered.

“They stink,” Daryl pointed out.

“Not if you give them a bath,” Rick fired back.

“They get fleas and ticks.”

“We can get a flea and tick collar.”

“It'll bite the baby.”

Rick pursed his lips, “You know that is a lame ass argument. Dogs are well known to protect their families, especially babies.”

“Don't want no damn dog, Rick.” and with that, Daryl walked down the hall to check on baby Carl.

***

It was Daryl's fault he was even thinking about getting a puppy. They'd been walking Carl in the park when a dog had gotten loose from it's master and trotted over to them with it's tail wagging. After checking out the stroller and it's contents (causing Carl to giggle in that adorable baby way), he'd sniffed at Rick and Daryl.

Daryl was smiling that little hidden smile that only Rick could see, the one reserved for the baby and Rick. Daryl had knelt down to pet the little black dog and laughed despite himself when the dog had licked his face. They just looked so damn cute together.

Rick had started looking the next day.

***

The next time they went to the park Rick kept his eyes out for any dogs that looked especially friendly. But today, they were all staying on their leashes and he couldn't coax Daryl to go with him to pet any. Rick took advantage though, and took note of which breeds seemed to be OK with the baby in the stroller.

He chanced a look at Daryl after the fifth dog and saw him glowering at him in that way that meant,”Tired of your shit, Rick.”

Rick's smile faltered, but he wasn't about to give up. If he was the giving up type of guy, he wouldn't have Daryl, and there was no way he was giving up Daryl.

They didn't get to go to the park on their next scheduled trip because it was raining. They spent the time rolling around on the big fluffy carpet playing with Carl. Rick had to hold back a tear as he watched Daryl make funny faces and noises for their baby. Daryl was an awesome dad despite his misgivings when Carl had come into their lives.

It rained off and on for a week, so by the time they could go for their walk in the park, everything was soaked. Not many people had ventured out that day, and even fewer with dogs. The muddy foot prints and wet dog smell not worth the time outside Rick guessed.

He noticed that Daryl wasn't his customary step behind him and turned to see him crouched down, looking off into the trees that lined the park. When Rick started to walk back, Daryl put his hand up to stop him, not having to look at Rick to know what he was going to do.

Rick crouched down as well and followed Daryl's line of sight to see a small brown dog just on the inside of the wood. The poor thing was wet and shivering and looked like it could fit into the palm of Rick's hand.

Rick watched Daryl to see what he would do. Daryl it seemed was going to try and make friends with the stray because he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of the beef jerky he always carried around, never forgetting about his hungry days as a child.

The little dog took a step out of the tree line, sniffing hard in the air about him, trying to pinpoint the meat Daryl was waving around. Rick could see that it was really just a little puppy, probably too young to be away from his mother and his heart went out to the little fella.

Daryl tossed a small bit of jerky toward the puppy once it ventured out a few more feet. And continued tossing pieces ever shorter distances, luring the pup into his waiting arms. He sat right on the wet, muddy grass and pet the still shiver pup and eventually got it to snuggle into his jacket.

He slowly stood up and finally noticed Rick standing there with an expression of awe and love written all over his face.

“Shut up. I'm gonna take him to the shelter. It'd be cruel to leave him out her to fend for himself,” Daryl said as he turned and started walking back to their truck.

But the shelter couldn't take any more dogs that day and suggested the one the next county over. Rick nixed that idea because he knew that one to be a high kill shelter and there was no way they would have rescued that pup from the woods just to have him killed.

“We'll keep him for a few days until the shelter has more room,” Rick suggested.

***

The first night they had him home they'd washed him with a hose in the back yard, baby Carl squealing the whole time in his bouncy seat at the sight of two grown men trying to wash an uncooperative puppy. Rick was pretty sure he and Daryl got more mud on them than they got off the dog.

The next day when Daryl got home from work he brought a bag from the local pet store. It looked like he'd bought a puppy starter kit, replete with collar, bouncy ball, dog shampoo, puppy food, and fluffy doggy bed that just happened to match the décor of the living room.

The night before the puppy had slept in a make shift bed made out of an old blanket and a towel in the laundry room. He'd cried and howled until Daryl had brought him one of Carl's extra stuffed animals. Daryl hadn't come back to bed until the wee hours and Rick suspected he'd spent a fair amount of time calming the poor puppy.

Rick had been chasing the puppy and Carl all day cleaning up messes. He was a bit harried, but couldn't stop the grin he had on his face from watching the two play. And when they fell asleep all curled up together on the carpet, his heart just about melted. He sent a text with a picture to Daryl.

The next day when Daryl came home from work he'd bought two packs of puppy pads to soak up messes. Now they only had to convince the puppy to use one when he had the urge instead of their expensive hard wood floor.

Rick was taking the puppy out every two hours, but the poor thing would start playing with baby Carl and get excited and before you knew it, there was a little puddle on the floor that Rick had to swoop in and keep the baby from exploring.

Rick noticed that the dog would come to him when he said 'baby', even if he was referring to Carl.

Daryl took offense to that and said they couldn't call a male dog 'baby'. Rick tried a couple of variations and found that the dog would answer just as well to 'Bobby'.

Daryl's pet store trip the next day saw him bring home an engraved tag that said 'Bobby' and 'If found contact Rick Grimes' and Rick's phone number. Daryl'd had a hard time getting to sleep that night, but it wasn't because of the puppy.

When Daryl had announced he'd made a vet appointment for Bobby, Rick knew the little thing was here to stay. Even if the vet told them the puppy was going to eventually be a 50 pound dog.

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> See! I can write something besides smut! But if ya'll need that kind of stuff, stay tuned I got one in my drafts that's all kinds of angsty and smutty. ;)
> 
> Also, if you try to switch back and forth from HTML and Rick text, it screws everything up. And when you refresh your page to fix that, you loose everything you just spent 30 minutes typing in and you have to start alllll over. Yay.


End file.
